Fasting is a health area that I have avoided until a few months ago. I like to eat and on a regular schedule with breakfast, lunch and dinner. My alternative wellness doctor suggested intermittent fasting to try moving my blood sugar lower. For years the HbA1c has fluctuated between 5.6 and 5.8, not in the diabetic range, but always in the pre-diabetic range no matter what I do. I only weigh about 100 lbs, so there’s not exactly weight to lose.
Anyways, I agreed to try intermittent fasting and it hasn’t been as bad as I imagined. I had about 11 hours between dinner and breakfast and have pushed it to 14 hours. It was easier for me to push breakfast a little later than to move dinner earlier. I really haven’t noticed any health improvements other than losing a few pounds, so I guess the real test will be to see if there is any improvement in blood sugar numbers when I get re-tested.
Time restricted eating is only eating during a certain window of time during the day. For example, I’m eating between 10am and 8pm. I don’t eat anything outside of those hours. Most of that time is spent sleeping, but in the early morning when I am awake, I just drink water, green tea with lemon and a small cup of lemon in hot water, no food. The bare minimum eating window should be 12 hours for most everyone. Variations after that could be not eating for 14, 16 or 18 hours. Other variations include fasting for 24 hours one day per week and then a 12 hour window the rest of the week.
There are supposed to be health benefits associated with time restricted eating and fasting. They include the following:
- weight and body fat loss
- increases autophagy which is the bodies ability to repair and clear out bad cells
- improve blood sugar regulation
- reduced inflammation in the body
Challenge:
Try going 12 hours between dinner and breakfast the next day. You can still consume unsweetened liquids that don’t have calories, like water. Black coffee and green tea are ok. You don’t have to decrease the amount of calories you normally eat. You just have to eat normal, healthy foods in a shorter amount of time.
Resources:
https://drjockers.com/best-intermittent-fasting-strategies/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7262456/
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/time-restricted-eating
https://draxe.com/nutrition/time-restricted-eating/